Many of the anti-LFG arguments seem a bit flawed to me.

"If people go in knowing they won't be seen by the other players again they don't have a reason to not be rude."

Well yes and no. Idiots will be idiots regardless of social constraints. Likewise nice people will tend to be nice people even if those restrictions are, or at least appear to be, lifted.

There are other issues to this as well, such as the current situation right now where on many servers you don't want to kick people because it might be hard or impossible to replace them.

Think about that for a moment. If you're hard to replace you can be more of an ******* than you can get away with if you're easily replaced. If anything LFG could cause an improvement in overall manners just because rude people could get booted and replaced much more quickly and easily.

"Without any local social constraints people will ninja loot more."

I got news for ya, folks in this game often don't care about looting rolls anyways. As long as warriors/rogues don't roll on mage/cleric gear and vice versa nobody seems to really care about things like "Justicar gets dibs on +Toughness chain."

That example is, of course, a personal experience one given that I was tanking AP last night with my Justicar and the healer rolled Need on and obtained some obvious tanking gear.

Two other points to consider are the same as with the previous issue. If the servers have a relatively similar percentage of their players being "ninjas" then LFG won't make the problem more common, but it might make the problem more visible. Likewise by potentially allowing for more parties to be formed faster the impact of these ninjas will, in terms of time invested in the game, be somewhat minimized.

Still, there's one thing Trion could do to solve all these issues people have against cross-server LFG systems. Implement a nice check box for it. That way if you don't want to get into multi-server parties you don't have to. Everyone wins.

So wouldn't this make queue times for dps players increase? I can't see how having to compete against hundreds of other damage dealers is an improvement.

Very bad.

Qs in WoW were not any faster than in Rift at 50.

Even in WoW it took you years to pop a non-50 dungeon. It will not change in Rift.

Just another reason after my Sub ends I'll probably not stay.

WoW turn in the the most horrible 5 man runs you'll ever find after their cross server. For every run that wasn't terrible you get 5 that made you never want to play again.

Why? People knew they'd never see you again.

Let's see forced specs now, 51 in more builds putting THE talent that makes the tree go at 51. WoW forced 31.

Content for the few. 20 Raiders. Every major patch in WoW new Raids.

I see where Trion is going. And by the looks of it they are the samethings that made me leave WoW after 6+ years.

I do wish them luck they will need it with huge games coming out very soon.

I know that many have anticipated, or dreaded, cross-shard LFG but I figured it was gonna happen sooner or later. Since I never experienced LFG on WoW (not my game) I don't really have a strong opinion. I guess I will just wait and see and trust that if Trion sees it really damaging things they will disable it.

After seeing the before and after effects in WoW, I have to say that I think Trion is making the right choice by going cross-server. Yes, the negatives people have brought up are valid concerns. People will be less patient. There will be more ninjas. But on WoW, this was balanced by the fact that actually getting into a dungeon was no longer a big deal. You could just queue up again and have a new group in a few minutes, if not instantly. Even for my undergeared alts that, yes, would often get booted from cross-server groups after one look at their gear, gearing up was easily more expedient after the merge than before.

And remember, this change will likely allow more people to raid more quickly. A healthier raid pool is, inevitably, a healthier community.

Edited, Jul 13th 2011 10:49pm by zelamonster

cross shard LFG... do we really need it?? it's gonna hurt the community... the current LFG might be slow, but you can talk in your level bracket and say something... then others can jump in

an alternate for whitefall sounds good, i ran it once... didn't like it and never tried it again... escalation sounds interesting...

they should mix the fang mechanic from black garden into a map that resets when you carry it to your base... and do a time limit not a point limit... make it like a sport...

Nooo! I like being able to use dungeons with only people from my shard, because people are generally more friendly and more cooperative.

When cross-server LFG from WoW came out, yeah you got into a group faster, but half the time, the tank or healer would just ragequit after the first pull because the group took 1 minute to kill the mobs instead of 30 seconds and say, "DPS is bad" or "I don't have time for this."

Especially if you're doing a dungeon for the first time, people from your own shard are more willing to explain fights and have patience. Cross-server, people just plow through the dungeon and boot the nooby that dies to unknown boss mechanics because no one would wait for them.